As the domestic economy has improved in recent months, so too have the major Wall Street indexes. The Dow Jones industrial average soared yesterday, closing at its highest level since before the start of the Great Recession. The Nasdaq composite index, meanwhile, closed yesterday at its highest level in more than 11 years.
Rep. Allen West (R-Fla.) offered a unique take on these developments yesterday, telling Fox News' Neil Cavuto the recent upswing may be tied to the 2012 presidential election.
WEST: Well, I would think maybe the markets are maybe looking five to six months down the road, when we have a change in leadership in this country –
CAVUTO: Wait a minute, you think that this is built on a Republican either capturing the White House or Republicans capturing the Senate? … You think that the markets are getting bubbly in anticipation of a Republican taking the White House?
WEST: Oh, absolutely.
Let me get this straight. In the Republican congressman's mind, investors are overlooking improved job numbers, improved consumer spending, and improved economic confidence, and are instead investing based on expectations that a new, unnamed president might take office 10 months from now?
Is this really going to be the Republican line on an improved environment for investors?
For what it's worth, much to Republicans' chagrin, Bloomberg News recently reported that the stock market invariably performs better under Democratic administrations.
Bloomberg News
In 2004, a Bush cabinet official said job creation and GDP numbers don't really matter because "the stock market is ... the final arbiter" of economic success.
If that's still true, Republicans appear to have some explaining to do.
Leave a Comment:
The Republicans are searching and searching desparately for something they can take the credit for. There really isn't anything except for the great entertainment they have provided us with. I'm telling you they missed their forte they should have gone into the acting field.
For the love of FSM, someone please make that man the VP nominee.
Trying to fight delusion with truth again? Alice needs her pills and you should be ashamed of yourself for trying to undo the magic those pills deliver.
I mean really. What if we started bursting bubbles everytime they got filled with hot air? Treasure hunters might stop going to garage sales and flea markets, middle class wannabes might quit buying gold, newlyweds might stop rushing out to buy houses, lawmakers might quit playing god and we might all stop saying if only...
I say-dream on Mr. and Ms. republican! Dream on, but don't cry when you awaken to reality.
congressman west really pushes the envelope on dumb, but then so do a lot of what passes for republican leadership these days. i remember back in the bad old days of 'liberal media' when any official, regardless of party affiliation, would have been pillioried by the press for this kind of stupidity. now we have one party which celebrates it and a supposedly neutral press which is afraid to point it out, less it be accused of being partial.
Of course it does. The very day that Clinton won the election in 1992, Wall Street went on an eight-year euphoric binge knowing that he'd be followed by a Republican and the good times would be back again.
Wall Street investors can't look ahead 8 minutes, let alone 8 months.
A science is a field of study where repeatable experiments can be done to see how reality works. We extend the concept to astronomy and paleontology. Because politicians don't care about their results, they are left alone to argue among themselves. Eventually they come to some consensus.
Economics is not a science in any meaningful sense. There are no repeatable experiments and politicians deeply care what theory is being used to guide policy. As a result no consensus is ever reached. At any time a new group of economists and politicians can grab hold of a hoary old discredited theory, dust it off, and take policy off in a new direction. "Proof" is not possible or ncessary.
The current theory that the Repubs espouse is clearly totally wrong, but that doesn't stop them from siting it as they undermine the full faith and credit of the USA.
So what this chart is saying is that the Democratic Presidents are the ones that boost up wall street?
Democrats don't hate Wall Street in the sense that Democrats don't hate the concept of investing in things, banks, etc. What Democrats hate are practices like short selling and when corporations lie or abuse people for profit. Democrats do NOT think companies should get wealthy by being greedy. For the last time greed=/=profit. It is only Republicans who cannot make this distinction; it never was Democrats. When Democrats and liberals protest Wall Street it is not to protest profit making. It's to protest corruption, greed, abuse, lying, and stealing. It is and has only ever been Republicans who cannot and do not understand this distinction.
Don't try to frame this like it's a Democratic problem.
Now...that Allen West....He's a good example of why voter suppression laws MIGHT be useful....If we could keep idiots like West from voting, we might have something!
Well, at least there's one point of consistency -- Republicans have also ludicrously claimed that all manner of economic woes at the end of the Bush Administration were caused by businesses being terrified of taxes and regulations that were surely coming once Obama took office.
But more generally, it's just part of the general pattern -- anything bad is the fault of the nearest Democrat, anything good is to the credit of the nearest Republican.
Red:
Did you see the interview Jon Stewart had w/ Grover Norquist last night? Norquist asserted that businesses don't hire people because they are afraid of changes in policy. Jon then rebutted by stating 'so it's about perception'. Norquist responded to the effect of 'no it's not perception...businesses are afraid to hire new people if they're going to be taxed more.' Sometimes it drives me nuts how Stewart doesn't call bull@!$%# on this stuff...but nevertheless we got to see Norquist's true colors by that interview. Yes apparently in conservative realms emotion is everything. And here I thought us 'libtards' (as they call us) were supposed to be the emo ones.
Le sighs
No one ever accused Congressman Torture of having intelligence, let alone common sense. But then again Republicans are the Know Nothings of the 21st Century.
Stock market prediction:
1. Obama wins by a landslide.
2. Democrats take the House and keep Senate
3. Democrats feel empowered to let Bush tax cuts expire. Improving economy removes "stimulus" excuse for keeping Bush tax cuts.
4. Higher revenues mean feds sell less debt
5. Liquidity flows into stock market because feds are not selling Treasuries. That is, the fed does not have to compete with open market for funds by raising interest. Raising interest would be a disaster. If feds can raise taxes instead we'll do fine.
6. Rising stock market attracts investors because the gain is higher than Treasuries.
7. Stock market has already doubled under Obama and will double again. Since most people own stock, the rising market will boost consumer confidence.
8. Rising stock market will replace rising home price as the psychological driver of the economy.
9. Been there, done that in '90s under Clinton. Higher taxes on rich increased revenue and nearly balanced the federal budget, forcing liquidity into stocks, which returned ten times more than the higher taxes.
10. All this depends on Democrats finding the nerve to allow Bush tax cuts to expire. Otherwise the country is headed to bankruptcy. There is no other outcome.
11. Investors now are pumping up commodity futures. If the stock market becomes attractive liquidity will flow there, instead of commodity futures. This will lower commodity price which is anti-inflationary, and takes pressure off feds to raise interest to combat inflation.
Keeping interest and inflation down is a strong boost to the economy. Raising taxes to retire public debt is fiscally responsible. A rising stock market will boost consumer confidence.
Either Democrats find the nerve to let Bush tax cuts expire and bring national prosperity or the incompetent fools will cave as usual, leading to bankruptcy and civil war.
Or idiot voters will elect Republicans who will deliberately run the country to bankruptcy.
"Raising taxes to retire public debt is fiscally responsible"
Since public debt is held by the investor class, raising their taxes and using the money to pay down debt is just giving the money back to them. It's taking money out of one pocket and putting it back into another. The rich won't get poorer by raising their taxes. What they pay goes right back into their own pockets.
Don't get full of yourselves. The market loves grid-lock. Of recent history, democratic presidents - Clinton, Obama have had one or both houses of congress controlled by Republicans. What the Street hates is one party controlling the executive, house and senate. Grid lock makes both the market and my portfolio happy.